Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear power industry in the US and beyond and highlights the efforts of those working to create a nuclear free world.
By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press
Deep Freeze Shuts Down Texas Nuke
On February 15 the South Texas Project nuclear plant shut down after arctic weather descended on the region, Arctic Insights reported. A spokesperson for the plant said 1350 Megawatt reactor #1 shut down at 5:37 a.m.. The shutdown “resulted from a loss of feedwater attributed to cold-weather related failure of pressure sensing lines to feedwater pumps causing a false signal, which in turn caused the feedwater pump to trip (shut down).”
According to a February 16 Nuclear Regulatory Commission report, the shutdown was due to “low steam generator levels. The low levels in turn were due to loss of Feedwater pumps 11 and 13 (cause unknown).”
Translation: Unprecedented subfreezing temperatures caused uninsulated equipment to crap out. This shutdown added to the catastrophe in the region that left millions without heat, water or leadership as other electrical generators failed as well.
The South Teas Project plant’s two reactors started up in the late 1980s.making them in their 30s now, and they were designed to last 40 years. Utilities in Houston, San Antonio and Austin have been involved in their ownership and operation. Plans to build two untested new reactors on the site in Bay City near the Gulf Coast are going nowhere.
Sources:Atomic Insights,atomicinsightd.com; Nuclear Regulatory Commission, nrc.gov.
Major Earthquake at Fukushima Causes More Damage
On February 13, a 7.3 earthquake hit Japan’s Fukushima region, likely causing more damage to its crippled nuclear plant as the 10th anniversary of the disaster approached.
On February 20 the Associated Press reported, “Cooling water levels may have fallen in two reactors at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant since a powerful earthquake hit the area…The new damage could further complicate the plant’s already difficult decommissioning process, which could take decades.”
Since the multiple meltdowns at Fukushima following a 9.0 quake and 45-foot tsunami in March 2011, owner Tokyo Electric Co. has had to continually add water to the nuclear fuel at the bottom of the ruined reactors, otherwise a further disaster might occur. This in turn causes radioactive water that has to be stored in sometimes leaky tanks around the site and may end up in the Pacific Ocean.
Tepco reported that since the Feb 13 quake, the “cooling water level fell to 27 inches in building reactor 1 and 11 inches in reactor building 3.”
In addition, the AP reported, “More than 189 received minor injuries” in the recent quake, which also “triggered landslides, damaged homes and high-speed train tracks, and caused widespread power and water supply disruptions.”
Source: Associated Press, associated press.com.
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